About the Author

A painter, sculptor, illustrator, writer, and poet, Zdenko Velčić has been a steadfast steward of the culture of Croatia’s Kvarner. He started painting in elementary school and after a short stint in the hospitality industry, he cut his artistic teeth as a street painter on Opatija’s promenade. Soon his works found their way into galleries including his own in Rijeka and later in his native Golovik. Painting landscapes, nature, marine life, and scenes from the local life, Zdenko always has been interested in capturing and preserving his native culture. As if returning to his childhood, he depicts the first impressions of the things he saw and felt, capturing the excitement and spark of the initial experience.

Although this book represents the apex of his efforts in documenting the life in his native Kvarner, he didn’t stop there. Since 2009, when the original edition of this book was published, he created Art Terrarium, a collection of hyperrealistic dioramas depicting the flora and fauna of the area. As Novi List put it, these are “authentic moments from nature preserved from the end of the world” (November 17, 2022). When it’s not on tour, this fascinating exhibition can be seen at the author’s gallery in Golovik. 

His most recent diorama project, entitled Konoba (The Cellar), captures an intimate atmosphere of the traditional life of this area—locals talking, a weaver working a loom, olive oil being pressed in the olive mill, and other activities that lend the coastal Northern Adriatic its identity.

Zdenko lives and works in Golovik.